Fed's Rosengren: QE3 good for fiscal outlook

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - The Federal Reserve's latest round of asset purchases, known as quantitative easing is benefitting federal finances and should not be judged solely because it may add risks to the deficit in later years, said Eric Rosengren, the president of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank, on Friday. The asset purchase program "improves the broader fiscal outlook by lowering interest rates and providing more economic growth" and helps speed the U.S. toward the goal of full employment, Rosengren said in a speech at a forum on monetary policy sponsored by the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. Profits from increasing its balance sheet allowed the Fed to distribute a record $88.9 billion to the U.S. Treasury in 2012. Its balance sheet has reached $3 trillion in recent weeks. When interest rates rise, the Fed may suffer losses that mean it will not pay any income to the government.

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